Seleukid Coins
Demetrios II, Second Reign
Silver coin • Bronze coin • References
| Identification Number DE2-AR-01 | |
| Mint: | Antioch on the Orontes1 |
| Period: | 129/8 BC |
| Denomination: | AR Tetradrachm |
| Weight: | 16.52 g |
| Diameter: | 28 - 31 mm |
| Obverse: | Diademed bearded head of Demetrios II right, with hair combed smooth on crown of head and ends artificially curled beneath diadem; fillet border |
| Reverse: | ‘ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ’ right, ‘ΘΕΟΥ ΝΙΚΑΤΟΡΟΣ’ left (“of King Demetrios the Victorious God”); Zeus Nikephoros (“carrying victory”) seated to left on throne without back, holding Nike in right hand (inside legend, facing right and offering wreath to Zeus) and long scepter in left hand; ‘Ξ’ in exergue and ‘Δ’ under throne |
| Die Position: | 0º |
| References: | Houghton, CSE, 286 (this coin); Numismatik Lanz München, Auction 109 (May 27, 2002), Lot 211 (same obverse die) |
| Note: | Demetrios II held Antioch for less than one year after his return from Parthian captivity in 129 BC.2 In the spring of 128 BC, he went to war against Egypt but Antioch revolted in his rear and accepted the usurper Alexander II (Zabinas) sent by Ptolemy VIII.3 Demetrios II’s coinage at Antioch therefore lasted for only a short time (Newell, SMA, p. 84, notes that it is probably only due to the preparations against Egypt that his Antiochene issues are fairly prolific). The above variant with hair combed smooth above the diadem and with Nike facing right on the reverse represents the earliest issue (this variant is also known from early issues of Tarsos and Damaskos). Later dies show Demetrios II with tousled locks on the crown of the head and on the reverse Nike facing left (there is also a transitional issue with hair combed smooth but Nike facing left). |
| Identification Number DE2-AE-02 | |
| Mint: | Antioch on the Orontes1 |
| Period: | 129/8 BC |
| Denomination: | AE Unit |
| Weight: | 5.04 g |
| Diameter: | 16 - 17 mm |
| Obverse: | Laureate head of Zeus right; dotted border |
| Reverse: | ‘[ΒΑΣ]ΙΛΕΩ[Σ] [Δ]ΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ’ right, ‘[Θ]ΕΟΥ ΝΙΚΑΤΟΡΟΣ’ left (“of King Demetrios the Victorious God”); Nike advancing left, holding wreath in right hand and palm branch with left hand; ‘Ξ’ in inner left field and bunch of grapes hanging from short branch in outer left field |
| Die Position: | c. 40º |
| References: | BMC 4, p. 79, No. 2; Houghton, CSE, 291 var. (different control mark in outer left field); Hunterian Coll. III, p. 89, Nos. 27-29 var. (different control marks in outer left field); SNG Spaer, 2170 (the bunch of grapes in outer left field is accompanied by a question mark) |
| Notes: | (1) For the second reign of Demetrios II at Antioch, see the note attached to the coin DE2-AR-01 above. |
| (2) All coins of this type have the control letter Ξ (either in the inner left field or in the outer left field above the secondary symbol) and the same control letter appears on Demetrios II’s Antiochene silver coins from this period. However, there are many other variants of the secondary symbol in the outer left field: no symbol (SNG Spaer, 2177), cornucopiae (SNG Spaer, 2164-6), splayed double cornucopiae (SNG Spaer, 2167), palm branch (SNG Spaer, 2172), club (SNG Spaer, 2173), crescent (SNG Spaer, 2174) and aphlaston (SNG Spaer, 2175). | |
1 Antioch was founded about 300 BC by Seleukos I Nikator, the founder of the Seleukid Dynasty, and it became the principal capital of the Seleukid Empire. The city was named after a family name Antiochos, passed from his father to his son (Antiochos I Soter). There were a number of other cities by the same name and this Antioch was known as Antioch on the Orontes (i.e. the Orontes River, along which it was located).
2 For a description and chronology of Demetrios II’s captivity and return, see the page devoted to Antiochos VII’s genealogy and biography.
3 First coins of Alexander II from Antioch mint are dated SE 184 (September 129 - October 128), see, e.g., SNG Spaer, 2375 ff. The revolt in Antioch is explicitly mentioned by Justin, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, 39.1:
After Antiochus (Antiochos VII) and his army were cut off in Persia, his brother Demetrius (Demetrios II), being delivered from confinement among the Parthians, and restored to his throne, resolved, while all Syria was mourning for the loss of the army, to make war upon Egypt, (just as if his and his brother’s wars with the Parthians, in which one was taken prisoner and the other killed, had had a fortunate termination), Cleopatra his mother-in-law (Kleopatra II, queen of Egypt and mother of Kleopatra Thea, Demetrios II’s wife) promising him the kingdom of Egypt, as a recompence for the assistance that he should afford her against her brother (Ptolemy VIII). But, as is often the case, while he was grasping at what belonged to others, he lost his own by a rebellion in Syria; for the people of Antioch, in the first place, under the leadership of Trypho (either an otherwise unknown man or a confusion with the previous usurper Diodotos Tryphon), and from detestation of the pride of their king (which, from his intercourse with the unfeeling Parthians, had become intolerable), and afterwards the Apamenians and other people, following their example, revolted from Demetrius in his absence. Ptolemy (Ptolemy VIII), king of Egypt, too, who was threatened with a war by him, having learned that his sister Cleopatra (Kleopatra II) had put much of the wealth of Egypt on ship-board, and fled into Syria to her daughter and son-in-law Demetrius, sent an Egyptian youth, the son of a merchant named Protarchus, to claim the throne of Syria by force of arms, having forged a story, that he had been admitted into the family of King Antiochus (Antiochos VII) by adoption, and the Syrians, at the same time, refusing no man for their king, if they might but be freed from the insolence of Demetrius. The name of Alexander (Alexander II) was given to the youth, and great succours were sent him from Egypt.